Carlsen – Anand in Tweets Game 2

9 November: what a day. Did you know that on 9 November 1985, Garry Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov?

Four years later, a wall fell.

@Europe_Echecs: “A Berlin defense for the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall would not be a good idea”, and added this twitpic:

Of course Carlsen and Anand played the Berlin Defence in game 2. It was just a matter of time before the first “Wall” tweet popped up. The winner is @mortenp: “Berlin being played on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall”. @chess24.com: “So an anti-Berlin on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall!”

This is one of the best videos I found about the building of the wall:

Back to chess. Ready for game 2?

@_cyberella:“I have a box of chocolates, fresh coffee and Carlsen – Anand streaming on the laptop. It’s a perfect Sunday”.

Hmm, Sunday is also Premier League day, too bad that the organizers planned game two today: @TarjeiJS:“One of Carlsen’s closest friend saying he wants to win quickly today, because of Swansea-Arsenal starting at 5 (CET)”.

@rajachess:“Is he really going to watch Swansea-Arsenal?”

@nigelshortchess:“Reti was right: 1.e4 is just a blunder” and added: “I am quite glad I chose to finish my lunch rather than rush back home for the opening moves”.

@anishgiri:“Sad necessity of modern chess. Back in the days a6 Bxc6 was considered nothing, now Magnus tries it even without a6”. @fabianocaruana: Even without a6 he can enjoy memories of his game vs Grischuk. It’s only 1 tempo after all.

The commercial break

And now… in the middle of the game…we have to leave you for a commercial break….

@ChessIndiaNet: “So fortunate to see the Borat’s museum ad again :)” @cyberella: “And now we’re getting ads, in the middle of the match??? What hideous way to cover a World Championship!!” @ImbiebsRainbow: “Commercial breaks. Meanwhile, the guys are making moves. I don’t get it at all, isn’t the game more important right now?”

@OlimpiuUrcan: “This repetitive Russian Chess Museum infomercial threatens to set a new world record of Ivan the Terrible mentions in the next three weeks.”

@Rfed1: “Dei, this is absurd. They have scheduled ad breaks and you are forced to watch some Russian crap for 10 minutes non stop”.

@FuriousRoger:“Carlsen has one eye on the Swansea game, while Vishy is mulling over the choice of pickle for his thayir sadam”

Hikaru Nakamura is watching the match from sunny California and tweeted: @GMHikaru:“Strange moves by Anand in the middlegame. In particular, the knight almost always belongs on e6 in these exchange Ruy structures. 18…Ne6!” And what do you think about the position, @FabianoCaruana:“This is very nasty for black. And exactly the type of position where Carlsen is at his most ruthless”.

Caruana could be the next challenger, right? @mousa_bander tweeted: “In 2016, carlsen-caruana , in 2018, carlsen-giri, In 2020 carlsen- stockfish”.

Carlsen’s seconds “The Dane and The Hammer” were obviously confident about the position, and started tweeting during the game: @PHChess: “Would be a fitting day to tear down the Berlin wall..” and immediately after the game Jon Ludvig Hammer @gmjvh tweeted:“The wall has fallen!”

Brilliant stuff by Wadalupe!

What happened? Let’s ask @Jonathan_Rowson: “Essence of why Vishy lost today? He evaluated position after 23.Rc3 as close to equal, but it’s close to lost. Easily done.” And he added: “All said and done, hyper-classy, super skilled, quietly deadly, brutally elegant win by Magnus today.”

What do you think, @Nigelshortchess:“Blunders don’t happen in a vacuum. 34…h5?? came after enormous sustained pressure”

@AnishGiri:” It’s hard to a win a match if the starting point for your ‘strategy’ is “I am a weaker player.”

The fans in India were disappointed, of course. A selection of tweets: @anand_bombay: “The other Candidates players must be thanking their stars that they are not the ones at the receiving end. ” @deshmukhavinash: “Very angry and upset with defeat. Anand literally crumbled under pressure”. @arvindtal: “Vishy is such a disappointment that i started listening to some classical music (Saint Saens) after the game to ease the blow.”

@Jonathan_Rowson:“If Indian press are giving Vishy a hard time they should chill out. He lost one game to the best player ever having a particularly good day.”

@MagnusCarlsen was all smiles after the game:“Nice way to end the weekend…” and showed a selfie with his sister Ellen.

A perfect Sunday for the world champion? Àlmost. Remember the tweet about Swansea-Arsenal?

A lot of people watched football this weekend, many people in Norway watched chess: Spurs fan @TarjeiJS has the exact figures for us:“218,000 Norwegians followed Carlsen-Anand on #nrksjakk this weekend, 52.000 more than in Chennai. (via @Aftenposten)”.

@OlimpiuUrcan: “That’s about 4.3% of Norway’s population. Or, if FIDE staffers would calculate that, about 85%.”